Highways Agency

A428 Caxton Common to Hardwick Improvement

10.0 Summary

10.1 The Scheme has been appraised to record the degree to which the five Central Government objectives for transport (environment, safety, economy, accessibility and integration) would be achieved. At the heart of the appraisal process is the Appraisal Summary Table (AST). This is presented in the Appendix to this document.

10.2 The impacts of the Scheme have been recorded under the following objectives and sub-objectives.

ENVIRONMENT to protect the built and natural environment

to reduce Noise

to improve Local Air Quality

to reduce Greenhouse Gases

to protect and enhance the Landscape

to protect and enhance the Townscape

to protect the Heritage of Historic Resources

to support Biodiversity

to protect the Water Environment

to encourage Physical Fitness

to improve Journey Ambience

SAFETY - to improve safety

to reduce Accidents

to improve Security

ECONOMY - to support sustainable economic activity and get good value for money

to improve Transport Economic Efficiency

to improve Reliability

to provide beneficial Wider Economic Impacts

ACCESSIBILITY - to improve access to facilities for those without a car and to reduce severance

to increase Option Values

to reduce Severance

to improve Access to the Transport System

INTEGRATION - to ensure that all decisions are taken in the context of the Government's integrated transport policy

to improve Transport Interchange

to integrate transport policy with Land-use Policy

to integrate transport policy with Other Government Policies

10.3 Against these objectives the effects of the A428 Caxton Common to Hardwick Improvement can be summarised as follows:

Beneficial

reduced traffic noise for properties in the vicinity of the road

reduced number of accidents along the A428 and improved safety for pedestrians

improved standards and reduced flows on local roads, therefore improving traveller care for trunk road traffic and reducing traveller stress for all

slight beneficial effects for security, reliability and severance

Adverse

air quality benefits due to reduced congestion are outweighed by the increase in traffic flow along this route if the Scheme is constructed, as the existing flows are limited by the capacity of the existing road slight adverse effect on the landscape as part of the route impacts on the Area of Best Landscape and Cambridge Green Belt and also landtake/severance of agricultural land

slightly adverse biodiversity impact on protected species and loss of habitat. Also loss of some mature hedgerows, trees & species rich verge plus fragmentation of local wildlife corridors

Neutral

effects on non-main river and aquifer would be minor or negligible

neutral overall impact on Heritage of Historic Resources

some land use policies are met and others have adverse effect, resulting in a neutral overall score. No significant issues have been identified for any other government policies